Month: March 2005
- Phuket
Massive casino for Phang Nga Bay
PHANG NGA: In a development likely to be disturbing to some, the government announced this morning that Phang Nga Bay is to become the site for Thailand’s first legal casino.The announcement was made following a hastily-convened session of Cabinet in Bangkok late yesterday evening, at which ministers agreed to invest a whopping 30 billion baht in the mega-facility. It will be built…
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Fishermen to strike over fuel price hike
PHUKET: Members of the Phuket Fishery Association will join a national work stoppage starting Monday (April 4) in protest at the 19% rise in diesel oil prices that came in on March 23. Association Chairman Somyot Boonyakul today told the Gazette that the diesel price hike – coupled with the already high price of regular gasoline – simply makes it…
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Gov calls for greater urgency in tsunami plan
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura has ordered the provincial branch of the Office of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (ODPM) to speed up its coastal evacuation planning and work more closely with local government bodies in order to prevent a repeat of the confusion that followed last Monday’s tsunami alert. Gov Udomsak made the call at yesterday’s monthly meeting of…
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Gov calls halt to public exorcisms
PHUKET CITY: Governor Udomsak Usawarangkura today called a halt to religious ceremonies in public areas held to appease ghosts of tsunami victims, with effect from next Tuesday.At a meeting of provincial government officers this morning, Governor Udomsak said, “There have been enough religious ceremonies [for tsunami victims]. If anyone needs to hold a religious ceremony, they can but only within…
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Crackdown on crime for Songkran
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Police have revealed plans to keep crime and disruption during the Songkran holiday period to a minimum.Phuket City Police Superintendent Pol Col Paween Pongsirin told the Gazette that the Government has set a target of a 15% reduction in the number of accidents compared with last year, so there will be a crackdown on motoring offences.Col Paween…
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Thai, German scientists discuss tsunami topics
PHUKET CITY: Thai and German marine geologists gathered at the Royal Phuket City Hotel today for a seminar on a variety of tsunami-related topics.The three-day seminar, from March 29 to 31, covers such topics as sea floor mapping, bathymetric surveys, numerical modeling of tsunami events, seismic surveys of the Andaman Sea, marine ecology and coastal management for handling disaster. Speakers…
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Sixes cricket starts on seventh
KARON: The Lighthouse Phuket International Cricket Sixes tournament gets underway on April 7 at Karon Municipal Stadium. The 18 teams taking part in this year’s tournament include Gauhati Town Cricket Club from India, Lamma CC from Hong Kong and PALPA CC from Pakistan, as well as the Perth Postels and the Warathais from Australia. Local teams include the Green Man…
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UK policeman dies in road smash
TAKUA PA: A British police officer who was a member of the the UK’s Disaster Victims Identification (DVI) team working in Phuket died yesterday in a minibus crash in Phang Nga. Two of his colleagues were seriously injured.The accident happened around 4pm yesterday, when the minibus in which the three officers were travelling was in collision with a Phuket-Bangkok tour…
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Body in sea ‘probably a foreigner’
PHUKET: The body of an unidentified man, probably a foreigner, was found floating in the sea about one mile south of Laem Promthep yesterday. The gruesome discovery was made at about 11 am near Koh Kaew Pissadarn by fisherman Sanée Kreasang, 41.Pol Maj Chana Suttimath of the Chalong Police Station told the Gazette the man was at least 30 years…
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40 families get new homes
PHUKET: Forty families left homeless by the December 26 tsunami took possession of new homes yesterday morning during ceremonies at Koh Sireh’s Laem Tukkae and along Klong Pak Bang, at the southern end of Patong Beach.At the Sea Gypsy Village at Laem Tukkae, 24 Sea Gypsy families moved into new permanent dwellings at a ceremony presided over by Governor Udomsak…
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Senators slam banks, bureaucrats
PHUKET CITY: A Senate fact-finding team has found that only half of businesses and individuals affected by the tsunami have received any financial assistance from the Government. For this they blame bank lending policies, red tape and unhelpful officials.The senators, about 20 in all, met for a seminar at the Royal Phuket City Hotel on March 26 to discuss problems…
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V/Gov appeals for massive donations
PHUKET CITY: Vice-Governor Winai Buapradit has requested hundreds of millions of baht, along with practical support, from foreign donors, the Thai private sector and the Thai government to help Phuket recover fully from the December 26 tsunami.During a meeting at Provinical Hall on March 24, V/Gov Winai outlined several situations in which the local authorities need help in putting right damage…
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Pre-Songkran re-opening for aquarium
AO MAKHAM: The Phuket Aquarium will reopen to the public on April 9, after being closed for renovations and improvements for two and a half years.The management is marking the reopening by offering free admission to all on April 9 and 10.Wannakiat Tubtimsang, Director of Phuket Marine Biological Center, which runs the aquarium, told the Gazette that 81 million baht…
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Phuket on high alert, but no tsunami
PHUKET: Seaside towns and villages around Phuket were evacuated last night after warnings from the Meteorological Department that there was a high possibility of another tsunami hitting the island. The warnings came after a massive earthquake jolted Sumatra, just 200 kilometers from the site of the temblor that caused the tsunami on December 26 last year. That wave killed an…
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Anti-terrorist system in place soon
PHUKET CITY: Phuket Immigration should have a new international anti-terrorism database system in operation by mid-year, the head of Thai Immigration told a press conference this morning.Speaking at a gathering of provincial Immigration Police chiefs at the Phuket Immigration Office, Immigration Commissioner Lt Gen Amarin Niemskul announced that Phuket would be one of three pilot provinces to get the new…
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Not-so-lucky charm
PHAYAO: A Phayao man is behind bars after allegedly stealing the preserved corpse of a stillborn baby boy from Phayao Hospital to use as a lucky charm. Jakree Tiemkaew, a 35-year-old builder from Tambon Ban Dam in Muang District, was taken into custody on February 22 after he took the tiny corpse to a local glass cabinetmaker and asked to…
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Dengue outbreak reports “exaggerated’
PHUKET CITY: Dr Wanchai Sattayawutthipong, Chief Of Phuket Provincial Health Office (PPHO), today denied media reports that 100 people in Phuket have contracted dengue fever already this year, saying that only half that number had been confirmed as having the disease.A report by the state-run Thai News Agency (TNA), an arm of the Mass Communications Organization of Thailand, for example,…
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Patong plan takes a step forward
PATONG: The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) will fund a 200-million-baht project to improve road surfaces, sidewalks and drains along the beach road in Patong, it was announced yesterday.The announcement came during the third meeting of a committee set up to oversee redevelopment of Patong in the wake of the December 26 tsunami. The meeting, held at Patong Municipal offices…
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Your police force needs you!
PHUKET: The Tourist Police are hoping to recruit 100 people, including foreigners, to complete a weekend-long course and become volunteer tourist police officers, capable of safeguarding the wellbeing of tourists.Phuket Tourist Police inspector Pol Maj Bundit Khaosutham told the Gazette that the course would cover topics such as first aid and how to spot con men and others who might…
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Mystery over murdered woman
RASSADA: Police are investigating the stabbing murder of an unidentified woman whose decaying corpse was discovered near the Sri Suchart Grand Ville 2 housing estate off the bypass road yesterday.Phuket City Police Investigator Pol Lt Col Tewet Preamsook told the Gazette today that the discovery of the body was reported in a telephone call by Chalong resident Arkom Na Takuatung…
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Farewell to ghosts
PATONG: A ceremony was held at Patong Beach yesterday to exorcize “sea ghosts” of people killed by the tsunami, in the hope that Korean tourists will be persuaded to return to Phuket.The ceremony was organized by the the Seoul, South Korea, office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).The Patong Beach ceremony was conducted by Korean medium Lee Hyo Nam.…
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Smiling girl from Bangkok is “Miss Phuket’
PHUKET: A 19-year-old from Bangkok was last night named the “People’s Choice” out of the 44 young women competing to be named Miss Thailand Universe 2005.A total of 864 members of the 2,000-strong audience of VIPs at Phuket FantaSea voted for Nootsara “Jum” Suknamai to win the “Miss Phuket” award, after seeing all the contestants model batik and Yahya (Phuket-style)…
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